On March 13, Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport Company Limited (600004.SH) released a report showing that over the 39-day Spring Festival travel period (February 2 to March 12, 2026), it handled 10.19 million passengers, making it the first airport in China to exceed 10 million passenger trips during the holiday season and setting a historical record. The same day marked the end of the 40-day travel rush. Subsequently, Shanghai Pudong Airport also announced it had surpassed 10 million passengers, with a total of 10.099 million passenger trips and 64,000 flight movements over the 40 days, setting new records for both passenger volume and flight operations during the Spring Festival period.
Data released by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) reflected similar trends: during the 40-day travel rush, Chinese airlines carried a total of 94.39 million passengers, averaging 236,000 daily, a 4.6% increase compared to the same period in 2025. A total of 759,000 flights were operated, averaging 19,000 per day, with both passenger numbers and flight volumes reaching record highs for the period.
Observers noted that as airports and airlines released record-breaking data, a significant change this year was that airfare prices rose alongside increasing passenger and flight numbers, reversing the post-pandemic trend of high passenger volume without corresponding revenue growth during holidays.
The CAAC statistics indicated that Spring Festival travel demand was concentrated at major hub airports such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Chengdu, which serve strong returning-home and tourism travel needs, as well as popular destination airports for winter sports and warm-weather travel, such as those in Northeast China and Hainan. Internationally, travel was concentrated within a "five-hour flight circle" including Thailand, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Vietnam, and Russia. Additionally, countries like Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Papua New Guinea, Morocco, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands saw rapid growth in passenger numbers.
This year marked the first Spring Festival travel season since Hainan's island-wide customs closure policy. Travel热度 to Hainan surged significantly. For example, Sanya Airport handled 18,000 flight movements and transported over 3.57 million passengers during the period, with flight movements and passenger volume increasing by 1.0% and 4.6% year-on-year, respectively.
According to information from China Eastern Airlines Corporation Limited (600115.SH), routes to "ice and snow" destinations like Harbin, Changchun, Changbai Mountain, and Altay led the market during the travel rush. Popular international and regional routes were mainly concentrated in South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, and Australia. Flights to and from Melbourne, Moscow, London, Bangkok, Seoul, Chiang Mai, as well as Hong Kong and Macao, maintained high load factors.
Data from flight analytics platforms showed that international departures were concentrated in Southeast Asia, accounting for nearly 50% of flights. Among popular international destinations, Thailand reclaimed the top spot, while flights to Japan saw a significant decline of 50.2%. Southeast Asian countries like Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Laos saw substantial flight increases. In previous holidays, Japan had consistently ranked as a top outbound destination. However, during this year's Spring Festival rush, the overall cancellation rate for flights from mainland China to Japan reached 49%, with no signs of recovery observed in daily trends.
Shanghai Pudong Airport, a major hub for Japan-bound flights accounting for nearly 50% of such services,累计取消 1,550 outbound flights during the travel period. Among the top 10 airports, Nanjing Lukou, Beijing Daxing, and Tianjin Binhai airports experienced high cancellation rates for flights to Japan.
Notably, unlike the previous year, this year's Spring Festival travel saw both volume and prices rise simultaneously. According to statistics, the average domestic economy class fare during the 2026 Spring Festival period reached 909 yuan (including taxes), a 3.9% increase compared to the 2025 period. Daily trends showed a "dumbbell-shaped" fare structure with higher prices in the middle period and lower prices at the beginning and end. Compared to previous years, 2026 fares exhibited more significant fluctuations, indicating that airlines concentrated their premium pricing around the peak holiday week while offering discounts before and after the rush.
In contrast, several National Day and Spring Festival holidays following the pandemic had seen increased passenger volume coupled with declining fares. The shift to simultaneous growth in volume and price this year is attributed primarily to passenger demand growth outpacing capacity growth: passenger numbers increased by 4.6% compared to the 2025 Spring Festival period, while flight capacity increased by only 2.7%.
Simultaneously, the user demographic for holiday air travel showed a clear trend towards higher quality and younger travelers. On various platforms, bookings for domestic first-class and business-class tickets by first-time flyers increased, reflecting a greater emphasis on comfort and experience among new air travelers.
Furthermore, the CAAC's focus on "standardizing air transport market pricing behavior" also influenced this year's fare pricing. In 2025, the CAAC had repeatedly emphasized "strengthening price monitoring and supervision to maintain market order," requiring airlines to exercise price self-discipline, enhance sales channel management, and stabilize price levels.
It is noteworthy that even after the Spring Festival holiday, while fares on many routes dropped significantly, the lowest fares (excluding taxes) did not fall below 200 yuan. This is related to the CAAC's ongoing efforts to curb excessive competition and restrict airlines from offering excessively low prices. During the 2026 civil aviation work conference, the CAAC head revealed plans to research and formulate methods for investigating passenger transport costs in 2026, explore the establishment of a coordinated fare monitoring and early warning mechanism, and strengthen supervision of online sales platforms.
Information from multiple airlines indicates that the CAAC is currently collecting relevant data from carriers to calculate costs on different routes. This data will serve as a basis for upcoming "fare monitoring and early warning" initiatives aimed at preventing恶性 competition through pricing below cost.
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